Freedom -Negan-

Chapter 13

I had felt pain before. Extreme pain. Dr. Carson scrubbing my swollen, oozing, infected hand seemed to be higher up on the list. He had to remove the ground in dirt and dead skin with an antiseptic scrub. I gritted my teeth and tried to contain the screams, but once he ran the wound under cold water, I couldn't hold it in. I gave out one loud yell that caused Simon to come running in. Once he saw what was going on, he relaxed and grabbed some cloth and told me to 'Bite into it'. I stared at the cloth in my left hand and brought it to my lips.

My mind flashed to the barn. Will tying the cloth gag around my head while his uncle had his way with me. Ben dragging me across the ground with the hood over my head. My hand clamped down on the fabric in my hand and I brought it away from my mouth. I decided to just swallow the screams. After a few scrubs, Dr. Carson looked at my hand and smiled, looking pleased with himself. He rinsed it one more time, causing my eyes to squeeze shut and I bit the insides of my cheeks.

"Well, you have a nice bed of granulation tissue, so I don't think you need sutures. I'll wrap it for you and you'll have to change it every few days until your antibiotics set in." I looked at my hand. It was bright pink now, and I felt it throbbing all the way up my arm, but the dirt and black tissue was gone. Carson took a towel and tried to gently pat my hand dry, avoiding the two-inch long gash. He grabbed a telfa non-stick pad and placed it on the wound, then a layer of gauze and finally a holding layer of Vetrap. "Make sure you're moving your fingers around to keep circulation flowing." Carson reminded me. I just gave him a slight nod and held my throbbing hand to my chest.

Carson went to his desk and wrote on his clipboard. He walked over to the other door that was in the room and disappeared into another room. I heard rustling and after a moment he came back out with a pill bottle. "This is cephalexin. You'll need to take one of these two times a day. I wrote the instructions right on the label. I gave you a weeks' worth. I want you to come back and we can check out your hand and see if you need some more." I nodded and took the bottle with my left hand.

There was a knock on the main door. Simon went over and answered it. The younger guard from before handed him some clothes. Simon turned towards me. "Let's go and get you cleaned up so you can see the big man again."

I turned to the doctor and gave him my best attempt at a warm smile. "Thank you so much." He returned my smile and nodded. I was surprised he hadn't asked me anything about what had happened to me, trying to get as much information as he could. Maybe he just had to worry about the physical damage I showed and didn't much care about the back story.

I turned and followed Simon out the door and to the left. He led me down the hall and I glanced back to see the young guard still trailing behind me, making sure he wasn't looking anywhere in my direction.

We made a few turns and my brain was really amazed how anyone could know where to go in this place. Every single hall looked exactly the god-damn same. The exhaustion was really creeping up on me now and I was tired of walking barefoot on the concrete. We turned one last corner and Simon gestured to a door on our left.

"Wait right here." He went through the door and I stood with the younger guard, holding my pile of clothes and pair of shoes. I leaned against the wall to make sure I didn't crumple to the ground to get some sleep. I couldn't wait to just sleep in a bed or even just lay down on something. Being strung up for a week really made you appreciate a bed or even just a couch at this point.

Another moment and Simon was back out. "It's all clear in there. You can get cleaned up and changed. We'll be right out here." He glanced at the hoodie I was wearing. "You can just toss that in the trash."

I looked down at the thin jacket that was the only thing that concealed me from these men. "Can we maybe wash it?" I asked looking up at Simon.

"Uh-Yeah, I'll have someone show you where to do that later." His faced showed confusion and I didn't feel like explaining myself. Hell, I didn't have an explanation. Just wanted the damn hoodie. "And make it quick, Negan is finished up and he'll be waiting."